Sports of the 21st century: Cat weightlifting

Buck Bokai really does love io9 – a sizable proportion of inspiration for this ‘site is due those wonderful folks – but it should be admitted that, like most other things outside of verb tenses, they ain’t perfect.

Case in point: That website’s recent reportage of an intriguing competition, the 21st century sports-looking “Cat Weightlifting.”

Hailing from (naturally) Japan, Cat Weightlifting does not in actuality involve hoisting a stack of felines or even one massive beast, but rather is the sport of  Vasily Alexeyev adapted *for* cats. Grammatically speaking, then, a better title for this event might be “Cats’ Weightlifting” – after all, one doesn’t say “Woman Tennis,” do you?

In any case, combine the Olympic contest of strength with a bit of “Japan’s Funniest Home Videos” and you get “Cat Weightlifting.” Go ahead, watch the clip below the break and tell Buck Bokai you don’t find it scintillating – just look at that flawless lift of 1.6 kilos.

Unfortunately, just three problems beleaguer (so to speak) the potential international expansion of “Cat Weightlifting”:

• Little on this programme appears to exist at all on non-Japanese websites outside of the obligatory “whoa, check out this bizarre video” style “entries.”

• The show appears to be a one-off; and really, how could you keep this thing going for a season? I mean, wouldn’t the cats eventually discern and detest their role as circus animal for homo sapiens’ amusement?

• Finally – and where’s were the pranking of io9 comes in – this clip, which is suddenly going viral all over the ‘net, was actually made in 2007! Oops.

Ah well, Buck Bokai supposes the future never comes easily…

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